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butterflydm · 2 years

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wot reread: knife of dreams (chap 12 - chap 21)

spoilers for knife of dreams

1. Oh. It’s Perrin. Wolves? No. Slavers? Yes. Unfortunate. I would like to reverse the ratio of wolves to slavers in this storyline. More wolves, fewer slavers. It’s now been 51 days since Faile was captured, so we had a major time skip. Anyway, Jordan is continuing his Give Slavery A Chance campaign by telling us about how much the Tuatha’an are enjoying living under Seanchan rule. I suspect that the first time a woman gets dragged out of the wagons for being capable of being able to channel or the first time some of them get enslaved because a High Blood decides one of them is pretty enough to be da'covale, they will like it less. Also genuinely disgusted by Perrin’s thought about Mat here about how well he thinks Mat would fit in with the slavers’ soldiers. Feels like Jordan retroactively trying to justify how he butchered Mat in CoT (and how he is continuing to do so in KoD).

2. The next chapter is Elayne! 💖 Elayne and Egwene are the only thing keeping me alive during these two books. You don’t understand how much I need them right now, in this time of Our Boys Decide To Be Chill With Slavers.

3. Elayne is dealing with an assault on the walls of Caemlyn from Arymilla’s forces. Birgitte is leading the defenders and Elayne wishes that she could do more to help personally, though she understands why she can’t. The attacks on the city walls have been getting more and more frequent, and it is more and more likely that one of them may break through and Arymilla might seize one of the city gates. Elayne has been able to keep the advantage, though only barely, by using Gateways to move her guards as needed.

4. Ah, Elayne thinks here about how her mother never gave up “one inch” of Andor. I wonder if that’s why she thinks with such certainty that she needs to ‘deal with’ the fact that the banner of Manetheren was raised in the Two Rivers. Because of her mother. Elayne very much wants to do her mother proud.

6. Also, I just want to point out that there is LITERALLY NOTHING preventing Rand from popping in to visit Elayne and Aviendha at this point in time except that Jordan has decided that Rand only gets to spend time with Min. When last we checked in with Rand, he had just finished waiting up for Bashere to come back with news about the Seanchan being willing to talk to him. He was literally just waiting around doing nothing for DAYS.

Things Rand could have done during that time:

checked on the Black Tower situation

visited Elayne & Aviendha, who he is bonded to and is in love with

Nynaeve could have told him about Mat and he could have tried to save Mat (thus also saving all the people with Mat and giving Rand that audience with the DotNM that he thinks he’s getting later on)

tried to check in on why Perrin is taking SO LONG for a simple task (which would keep Perrin from allying with slavers)

maybe tried to figure out a way to talk to Egwene now that he knows she’s Amrylin of the rebels (which would update him on THAT kidnapping situation)

What Rand actually does during that time:

have sex with Min

5. Okay, now Elayne is back to offering prayers for Mat and the others left behind during the Seanchan invasion, but no thought as to how she could actually... have done something... by telling Rand about Mat being left behind. Instead, it’s just treated as an Impossible Situation (”there was nothing she could do to help him”). But the only reason it’s Impossible is Author Fiat! Argh, Mat’s storyline is so frustrating on every level because it should not be happening. His friends & allies had every reason in the world to want to try to save him from the Seanchan and they had ways of attempting to help him! We know that Nynaeve was sending people behind enemy lines in Seanchan territory to recover Kinswomen so that they wouldn’t get caught by the Seanchan, but there’s no thought to doing this for Mat. It makes no sense! Jordan BROKE HIS NARRATIVE to stick Mat with Tuon. All the characters just forget about all the options that they had to try to save him and just assume it’s impossible without trying. This is bad writing! Jordan keeps trying to spackle the plothole but none of the spackle actually makes sense!

7. Elayne and Birgitte’s exhaustion here over how they don’t have enough officers and men really... really once again points out a large Mat-and-the-Band sized hole in this narrative (and this idea kinda combines things I’ve talked about with @essie007 & @markantonys). Elayne really needs soldiers and officers that she can trust! It really does kinda feel like Jordan plotted out Mat’s narrative and then went, “oh shit the prophecy!!!” and yanked Mat out of his pre-planned plotline to stuff him into the Seanchan plot and then had to spackle the hole that was left behind by Mat’s absence. Imagine a world with no DotNM prophecy -- Mat escapes with Elayne & co. Then he would have them get the Band to join him. Mat himself could leave with Rand and Nynaeve to help at the cleansing, leaving the Band behind to bolster Elayne’s forces. And the old BotRH is a story that could easily be used to rally for Andor rather than against it if spun the right way. Elayne and Birgitte would still be in command, with Talmanes & co underneath them, since Mat would be off with Rand. Anyway, here in Elayne’s actual storyline, she gets a very convenient windfall of a pretty lieutenant delivering ten thousand loyal soldiers into her arms, some random dude who we’ve literally never heard of before but are supposed to trust. Would have made more sense if this was Talmanes arriving with the Band.

8. Oh, we catch up with another former damane from Seanchan who was ready to be released from her collar! Jillari (oh, ouch, that is definitely a slave name). The other Seanchan-born former damane who is still in Caemlyn is Marille. They are slowly adjusting to the idea of freedom, though they still insist they are damane. Both of them, plus the two former damane who were abducted here in the Westlands, are always watched, to make sure they don’t try to free any of the sul’dam. I... this here is so heartbreaking and sympathetic and I just do NOT UNDERSTAND how Jordan could write this and also write the stuff he’s writing in Mat and Perrin’s storylines. I don’t get it! He clearly DOES understand how awful it is, so why is he having some of his characters start to FORGET or IGNORE how awful it is. Perrin is... well, Perrin would do any number of horrible things for Faile, unfortunately, but Mat used to be better than this and there is no good on-page reason for why he suddenly isn’t anymore. No eyes are pretty enough to lose your morals over! And Mat didn’t used to be the sort of person who would lose his morals over a pretty set of eyes. CoT!Mat might genuinely be the ~overwhelmingly attracted to evil chicks~ person that he gets meme’d as in fandom, but pre-CoT!Mat WASN’T.

Did Jordan believe that heterosexuality was a gateway to being evil??? idk maybe. The majority of (monogamous) heterosexual relationships in WoT seem defined by domestic violence and a willingness to subvert your own morality and personality for the person that you believe you’re meant to be with (sometimes even if you aren’t at all attracted to them until you talk yourself into it).

Or maybe it’s like how he could write the absolute horror story that was the majority of the Mat-Tylin ‘relationship’ but always ended it with “but actually Mat likes her and she’s just a ~sexy MILF~”. idk. Jillari literally BURSTS INTO TEARS over using “I” for herself instead of objectifying herself by only referring to herself in the third person. I just... imagine this on-screen, where we are seeing this exploration of the harm that was done to these women in Elayne’s plotline and then over in Mat, Perrin, and Rand’s plotlines, they are all deciding women like this are expendable as collateral damage, their freedom forfeit and not worth fighting for. Shows off the whole "oh no but Women Are Too Precious To Kill" argument for the nonsense that it is tbh. They Can't Kill A Woman but can sentence her to a Fate Worse Than Death, which means that it's all about the men and Their Feelings and zero percent about the actual women involved.

9. Jillari is also working on picking out a family name for herself -- she doesn’t feel like she has the right to the one she was born with (her name was stricken from her family books when it was discovered she could channel). So it’s not like Jordan has completely forgotten how terrible the Seanchan are -- he remembers it fine in Elayne’s storyline and in the prologue storylines. I wonder...

okay, one of my theories is that Jordan decided between writing WH & writing CoT that he would write the outriggers that would focus on Mat, Tuon (...and Perrin for some reason). And once he decided that, he punted Tuon and the Seanchan’s cultural upheaval storyline to happen in the outriggers rather than in the main story. And I think the different ways we’re seeing slavery treated is a result of that being a relatively abrupt choice of his. I don’t think he rewrote Elayne’s plotline or the prologues after changing his mind about the timing of the Seanchan cultural plot. I think he mostly just changed MAT’S storyline -- what was set up to be a journey of transformation for Tuon (the circus arc) instead becomes a journey of stagnation and, in order to have it make sense why Tuon isn’t prodded to change, he had to ruin Mat so that Mat wouldn’t fight her on her being a slaver. Like I mentioned above, it’s actually fully believable to me that Perrin would reach out to the Seanchan for Faile’s sake. And Rand desperately trying to make peace because he doesn’t think he can fight the war on two fronts makes sense too, even if it sucks. Mat is the only major character so far who has been torn apart for the sake of Giving Slavery A Chance. He was SET UP as a character who SHOULD have challenged Tuon on important issues -- she could have been predisposed to at least listen to him because (spoiler reasons) and Jordan so strongly set Mat up as an anti-slavery character in WH... and then proceeded to immediately begin ripping down that characterization in CoT (because he decided it was too soon to move on the plotline because he wanted to save it for the outriggers). That’s my theory so far. I think Jordan screwed himself by thinking too far ahead. Even if he hadn’t died, there was no guarantee that the outriggers would have ever happened! Anyway, I really do hate this plotline for ruining Mat, but at least I do have pre-CoT!Mat. I’ll always have pre-CoT!Mat.

10. Elayne wants to send a sul’dam who admits she can see weaves back to the Seanchan in order to try to show them the truth about the sul’dam. (the woman herself is now begging to be put in a collar because she’s convinced she’s an animal who deserves it). I... I sort of understand why Elayne thinks that way, but I feel like if she thought back to what happened in the Great Hunt, she might reconsider. Because they did leave two sul’dam leashed in Falme... and it changed nothing. It was hushed up by the people in power. Much better to keep the sul’dam here on this side of the battlelines. Teach her the same things that you’re teaching the former damane... and then let her demoralize the Seanchan by fighting against them -- telling them that she’s a former sul’dam. At least some of them would likely recognize her. But I don’t think sending her out of your hands is as useful as you’re hoping, Elayne. And I’m not a huge fan of the Seanchan getting another woman to use as a weapon, either. That being said, I do understand the argument that Elayne is making.

11. I find myself interested in Vandane as a sort of Rand analogue here -- Elayne thinks about how infuriating it is to watch someone potentially destroy themselves in the pursuit of their duty, and that applies so strongly to how Elayne probably would feel, if she were ever allowed to actually spend time with Rand. We also have Elayne being able to read Aviendha’s face clearly and wonder how she ever thought Aiel expressions were impassive.

12. Merilille and Talaan have not been caught by the Windfinders! Good for them! I wish them well.

13. Aviendha shows off another convenient Talent of being able to figure out what ter’angreal do. I feel like Jordan maybe should have picked a specific thing for Aviendha and stuck with it, lol. But this one is cute because it does fit very well with Elayne’s ter’angreal creation Talent. Anyway, she found a knife that hides you from the Shadow. Useful! Let’s see if that gets used!

14. Elayne does have a moment of jealousy over Aviendha being able to do something that she can’t -- and she kills it absolutely ruthlessly. Honestly, Aviendha getting more confident over pointing out what different ter’angreal can do is both very cute and also useful! But, of course, now that Aviendha has found a purpose, Jordan is immediately pulling her out of Elayne’s storyline. Rude! Anyway, all the Aiel are going somewhere on Rand’s command. We don’t find out where here; Rand sent a message to Bael and asked him not to share the information outward. He did not, apparently, give a single thought to the two women he is SUPPOSED TO ALSO BE IN LOVE WITH (what was the point of the bonding?!?). Rand should still be able to think about them even if they aren’t literally in his face, Jordan!

15. Elayne and Aviendha’s goodbye is very sweet, though. Aviendha gives her the ter’angreal to protect from the Shadow and Elayne lends her the amber turtle angreal and a twisted stone dream ring. But how will I cope with the rest of this book without my Avilayne? Elayne is also very sad, now that she only has duty to sustain her and not anyone by her side.

16. I am honestly, genuinely sad that we no longer have this emotional touchstone in Elayne’s storyline. Elayne and Aviendha have been such a highlight because they’ve had a deep emotional connection that was based on personal respect and affection. Once these two splinter off, there are no absolutely no main storylines that have a PoV character that has one of those bonds at the heart of it. Rand & Min are mostly just sex, Tuon and Mat are awful, Perrin is obsessing over his missing wife and has zero emotional connection to literally ANYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD at this point (any time anything else comes up, he just dismisses it as ‘not Faile’ and thus unimportant), and Nynaeve is barely on-screen. Our strongest emotional bond in the series now (between characters who are interacting) is Elayne and Birgitte but... I’m really gonna miss Aviendha being in Elayne’s storyline. Jordan just kept splitting people up more and more and more when what makes narrative sense to me would be characters beginning to REUNITE at this point. This should have been when the storylines were linking back up and merging again (the cleansing of saidin would have been a good place for that to start happening and it ALMOST does -- Nynaeve reunites with Rand... but then she’s barely on-screen afterwards) so that Team Light could actually be UNITED against the Shadow. Especially since apparently Jordan genuinely believed that the whole story was going to be wrapped up in the next book (which would have been his ‘A Memory of Light’). Logistically impossible, Jordan!

17. I don’t know why Elayne has decided that she no longer needs rumors that her kids belong to someone else to protect her babies? She doesn’t give an actual reason here why she doesn’t think that way anymore and nothing has really changed in that situation, so I offer a hearty ‘huh?’ and wonder if maybe there was a cut scene somewhere that Jordan forgot that he removed.

18. See here is the thing with how the Aes Sedai want things -- like, they want people to be overawed by them and think they’re infallible but they also wanted, for example, Rand to know instinctively which side he should pick in the civil war. But if so many Aes Sedai are trying to give the impression that the Tower actually IS still whole or is only pretending to be broken for reasons of its own... how can Rand know which Aes Sedai he can trust at this point? No one will give him straight-out answers, because of Aes Sedai secrecy and Aes Sedai solidarity, they just tell him to work on trust and that he doesn’t NEED to know the truth in order to trust them. And, yeah, he’s paranoid and he’s reckless... but he’s also being hunted and he’s been lied to and betrayed so many times, so his caution is not weird or strange. Both sides are being too cagey and too unwilling to trust each other, imo. This is actually another place where Jordan’s ideas about a Thing He Wanted In The Future got in the way of the current plotline that he was writing, imo. He wanted a specific (spoilery) Reason for Egwene and Rand to be able to come to terms with each other, so he put all these artificial reasons in place why they aren’t able to have a simple conversation with each other. But I am tired of the main characters only or mostly only interacting with secondary and tertiary characters!

19. lol conveniently, Elayne is able to touch the Source now that Aviendha is out of her plotline and Jordan needs her to be able to do it to weave an anti-eavesdropping ward. Her pregnancy symptoms really are only for narrative convenience.

20. Birgitte confirms that the corridors in the Royal Palace appear to be shifting (another sign of the Dark One’s touch on the world). The Map Room sounds cool - a ballroom that features a tile mosaic map of Caemlyn. Over a thousand years old! (with tiles replaced as they faded)

21. The Black Tower is two leagues south of Caemlyn. Seriously why on earth did Rand put it there? He can TRAVEL. He didn’t need to put it within riding distance.

22. Birgitte wonders if the Aiel being sent somewhere by Rand means that he plans to launch a new offensive against the Seanchan. I wish that it did! That would be nice! But we know from the ending of the last book that Rand is currently in ‘Let’s try to get a truce’ mode or at least have some talks.

23. It is interesting that when it comes to every other group -- like the unaligned Aes Sedai or the Borderlanders, Elayne can see why Rand would be wary and is wary herself on his behalf, but thinks that Rand should just automatically trust the rebel Aes Sedai. But she herself is, or should be, aware that the Aes Sedai want to HAVE information but dislike giving it out, so where would Rand be getting the information that he needs in order to form trust? Egwene didn’t make any attempts at forming any kind of official truce or agreement with Rand when Mat was sent to her, even though Mat made it really clear he was there under Rand’s banner (and, yes, he was grating and insulting about it, but Egwene HERSELF also assumed she’d been summoned to be punished and had no clue she would be raised to Amrylin before it happened) -- instead, Egwene sent Mat off on another task of her own and tried to keep his army for herself. Which means that Rand had NO INFORMATION about what had happened to any of his people; Mat and the Band just dropped off the map for him (and he still has not had anyone be honest with him about what happened to them!). But I guess this is tied to how little Elayne is ever allowed to see Rand or talk to him -- she gets to know barely ANYTHING about his life and what he’s gone through. Min has told so many people that Rand doesn’t trust about his trauma but Elayne and Aviendha know barely any of it! So Elayne has no idea that Rand has massive unresolved trauma around the idea of trusting Aes Sedai. So, I guess that I DO understand why Elayne thinks that Rand should just trust Egwene/the rebel Aes Sedai, but it’s frustrating to me that the reason that she thinks this is based on this massive info about her bonded boyfriend and father of her children being kept from her for no good reason.

And Rand has a major MAJOR issue of not getting information. He has no spymaster, no eyes-and-ears that we’re aware of. Elayne might assume that he does but, again, she knows that he was not raised as a ruler but as a shepherd and a farmboy. If they didn’t talk about how necessary such things were, it seems like it would be a good idea to assume that maybe Rand genuinely DOESN’T KNOW and maybe literally thinks he has to do all that himself. Because Rand mostly DOES seem to do all his own information gathering or occasionally delegating a single person to go find out a thing for him. He doesn’t have a spy network. He doesn’t know who he can trust, except on a very intimate, person-to-person level of mostly just his friends and lovers. Elayne trained all her life to be a leader and Egwene got months of training with the Wise Ones before she was picked as Amrylin Seat. Rand was dropped in the deep end, mostly surrounded by people who would have happily watched him drown. He is literally just making it up as he goes along. Three days of advice is not enough, my dearest Elayne, especially when you are making out for half of that time.

Moiraine sent away his other potential mentors in the art of ruling (Elayne and Thom) because she wanted to be the only one at his ear and I would say that was, hands-down, the worst mistake that Moiraine made in the entire series. She realizes that, somewhat, at the very end, but it was kinda too late by that point. She was only able to give him some advice that he was willing to listen to before the docks incident. I have mentioned this before but it continues to be relevant. Perrin somehow ends up with TWO spymasters, while Rand has none, because one of his own advisors sabotaged him back in TSR (love Moiraine but wow, her decision to bribe Thom to leave Tear had MAJOR knock-on consequences for Rand; and she wasn’t even right about her reasons! she thought that Thom as Rand’s advisor meant that Rand was going to stay in Tear and forget about the rest of the prophecies, but Rand was already making BIG plans (with Thom’s help) that would help take care of the disloyal lords and give him an opportunity to move forward on a prophecy). I say with love... wow, Moiraine screwed up there.

24. I really like this note here, where Elayne mentions that she reads several different histories of Andor to get at the truth -- books written during a Queen’s reign are likely to be somewhat rose-colored, for example. I like both that the narrative is aware of this and that Elayne is. She is, by far, our most politically astute character and I like this little note showing why she’s like that. She pays attention to the fact that a history book is a book written by a person and not objective fact. Elayne is also missing Aviendha something fierce.

25. Reanne was murdered by a saidar user (and likely the same Black Ajah sister that killed Adelas), Vandane has come to tell Elayne. She also suspects another Kinswoman, Mirane, was also murdered. So it’s possible that all the Kinswomen that were believed to have run away were actually murdered instead.

26. We swap over to Arymilla’s PoV for a few pages. See, this I don’t mind so much. It’s relatively short and yet informative. I don’t need a whole chapter from this woman’s PoV but a handful of pages isn’t bad. Pretty much everyone on her side of things is really really stressed out and feeling worn out. And we get introduced again to Sylvase, the heir to one of the Houses, who mostly is quiet and listens but occasionally asks questions that Arymilla doesn’t like. This is the right length for most of these outsider PoVs, imo. Anyway, they are going to do their big attack in one week.

27. Rand’s PoV. He is in a room with Loial and Nynaeve (who has still not been honest with him about leaving Mat behind in Ebou Dar). Rand is tired of answering questions but Loial feels like he’s barely learned anything for his book yet because Rand only tells him the basic facts of any given event. We learn that Rand sent off the Lord who wanted to see if he could channel off to the Black Tower but... you know, still didn’t investigate it himself. This is another of those creaky plotpoints where I literally feel like I can see Jordan’s puppet strings on Rand’s shoulders, holding him back from doing anything useful in that plotline because It’s Not Time Yet. He is doing literally nothing of pressing importance! He’s answering some questions for Loial and having sex with Min. That’s it! (...I mean, not at the same time. That we know of)

28. Alivia is also in the room, being a guard, I suppose. And the Maidens are finally with Rand again -- torn between being glad to guard him again and being mad at him for avoiding them for so long. Fair. I'm kinda annoyed that we didn't get any kind of actual emotional resolution to this plotline. Rand has been avoiding the Maidens for over three books! And now he's just apparently decided it's cool to hang out with them again. It really does make that whole long stretch feel kinda pointless.

29. Verin is also in the room! There are a lot of people in this room. Min, too, but as @markantonys puts it, she’s afraid she’ll turn to dust if she steps more than ten feet from Rand, so no surprise there. Cadsuane is also here. We are also reminded that Min is ALWAYS ready to share Rand’s trauma with other people. Thanks, Min. But Loial does mention Mat and Perrin. <3

30. Rand gets those swirls, now clearing out into images, and he sees that Mat is arguing with a small, dark woman (Tuon), and Perrin is grimly talking to two officers (Seanchan). So, you know, they are BOTH currently mired in Seanchan related plotlines. Rand tells Loial that they’re both well. So now Jordan has essentially given Rand a new excuse not to try to help his friends. He can go “oh yeah still alive” and then get on with his current plotline. It’s very irritating. If Rand knew that both of the other parties in these conversations were important Seanchan officials, maybe he would feel differently but he has no reason to imagine why either of his friends would be chilling with the Seanchan because he still thinks Mat is with Egwene and Perrin is supposed to be collecting Masema. Also, I guess of note, is that apparently Mat is allowed to argue with Tuon when he’s in Rand’s head. Rand IS frustrated over not having them with him but he doesn’t want to show it to everyone else. Honestly, I WOULD be annoyed over him keeping secrets from his romantic partner but telling Min is basically the same as telling Cadsuane, most of the time, so I’m okay with him keeping his worries to himself.

31. He also gets a very clear vision of the face of the man that he met in Shadar Logoth (who we know is Moridin/Ishamael) and both he and LTT find it very worrying. Honestly, I feel like Rand’s talks with LTT seem much more helpful to his thinking process than any of the actual living people that he is currently sharing a storyline with. Which possibly speaks more to how unhelpful his companions are than anything else, I suppose. Rand also worries about how memories are drifting back and forth between him and LTT, where LTT’s voice will reference memories that he knows belongs to Rand. tbh given how many voices and faces are in Rand’s head these days, no wonder he’s getting used to it.

32. Anyway, LTT drops some useful lore on Rand and on us! He realizes that the man was using the True Power and not saidin, which means that he’s a Darkfriend of some kind, because the True Power is a direct hook-up to the Dark One.

33. Nynaeve Delves Rand without asking. I feel like she DID ask, back in TFoH, after the fight with Rahvin. So I’m kinda frustrated that she’s acting like any other Aes Sedai here. Though Rand, at least, is only frustrated with her as his old Wisdom and doesn’t automatically associate her behavior with Aes Sedai.

34. Okay, Rand is getting news from Caemlyn from Logain. This is what I mean. Rand doesn’t have any regular eyes-and-ears; it’s all him sending people out on special missions. He doesn’t have a SYSTEM. Anyway, we have the return of ~women likely thought him handsome~ when Logain enters, lol.

35. lol, NOW apparently Cadsuane ALSO helped capture Taim in addition to helping capture Logain. So why did so many people think she was dead if she was the key person capturing all the recent false Dragons? That makes no sense. Logain was captured while Rand was on the road from the Two Rivers to Caemlyn and Taim wasn’t captured until a horse threw him when Rand proclaimed himself. The more Jordan buffs up Cadsuane’s resume, the more I roll my eyes at her, tbh. Honestly, Cadsuane’s place in this story is SO WEIRD as I come to it on a reread. She just seems completely superfluous. Like so many of Jordan’s late-book additions, I guess. He took away Rand’s mentor figure in TFoH only to almost immediately jam another, more forceful one into his story. So weird.

...also, Taim escaped from captivity, so I guess Cadsuane is a big ol’ failure there. She didn’t finish the job. Anyway, Cadsuane remains an asshole of backhanded compliments and passive-aggressive insults. I don’t even like Logain at this point (the bonding situation really bothered me) and yet she still annoys me when she pokes at him for no reason. Literally no one asked you, Cadsuane. She is almost always the rudest person in the room and yet is constantly chiding everyone else on their manners.

36. Yeah, instead of dealing with the Black Tower himself, Rand is sending Logain there to handle everything while he... idk, sulks about not being able to defeat the Seanchan??? idek. His motivation makes no sense here. Anyway, he’s sent a bunch of Asha’man to Arad Doman and Illian. And Taim now has forty-one ‘special’ students that are basically loyal only to him. Logain literally gives Rand the plainest warning that he can and Rand just refuses to do anything. It’s so frustrating! There’s no good reason! So often during the recent plotlines, it just feels like people are doing things or not doing things for absolutely no good reason. Give him a REASON not to go to the Black Tower, Jordan! Instead he just seems to decide that NOT trusting Taim is a reason to trust Taim because it must be his taint-influenced paranoia. ???

Things that feel Forced By The Plot’s Puppet Strings:

Rand x Min

literally everything about Mat’s story but especially

Mat x Tuon

Rand not checking out the Black Tower

the lack of communication between Rand & Elayne/Aviendha

Ironically, Perrin’s plot actually makes complete character sense even if I find it pointless and annoying lol. I absolutely believe that Perrin would do everything that he’s done in his plotline. I just find that very irritating of him.

37. It does seem like at least part of the reason that Rand isn’t checking out the Black Tower IS because of Min’s viewing of Logain’s ~future glory~ making him not trust the man. So we can officially mark that down as another Min viewing that is actively harming Rand.

38. Apparently Cadsuane is just allowed to make new ‘rules’ as Rand’s advisor whenever she wants. Wow. What a great deal for Rand. Amazing. I can see how much she’s helping him. /deep sarcasm

39. “Well, if he needed Cadsuane, and Min said he did, then he needed her. He just wished he knew what he was supposed to teach him aside from how to gnash his teeth.” He actively finds her irritating and would avoid her if he didn’t trust Min so much! Cadsuane’s actual ‘method’ is a failure with Rand! He is only forcing himself to endure her presence because of his trust in Min!

40. Rand is also worrying about Min’s violence impacting his choices as a leader, as he worries that she might attempt to murder one of his allies (Alivia). I mean, he mostly figures she would get herself hurt in the attempt because he knows exactly how ineffective her ‘protection’ of him is, but yeah.

41. His current plan is to meet with the Daughter of the Nine Moons, attempt to make a (temporary) truce with the Seanchan that is only to hold until he dies at Tarmon Gai’don and, if she refuses, attempt to crush the Seanchan once and for all (if only he WOULD). Anyway, Cadsuane gives Rand a speech about oaks and willows (flexible strength vs hardness, as if she has any room to talk on the subject tbh!) and Rand says a willow won’t win Tarmon Gai’don but we are interrupted by the arrival of Loial’s mom, Elder Haman, and Erith before Cadsuane can give a response. Cadsuane knows all about Loial’s mom because Jordan wanted to buff up her resume more, I guess.

42. Loial knows Rand well enough to know that the way Cadsuane is poking at Rand is going to make him blow up at her eventually and that she’s going about things the wrong way. Loial comes across as much more aware of Rand’s feelings and basic personality here than Min does, despite all Rand’s thoughts about how Min can ~read his mind~.

43. Oh, Loial gets married to Erith. Good for them, I suppose. Of all the heterosexual pairings that are flung at us in these recent books, this is the least out of nowhere, really, though the scenes related to it are few and far between. But they were both instantly attracted to each other back in TGH with the hitch being that Loial is certain that Erith will drag him back to the stedding and never let him do anything interesting again. And even though he DOES like Erith a lot, he really does wish someone would actually ASK him if he wants to marry her instead of just marrying him off to her. Erith actually does care about his opinion but (probably because she is just as aware of their culture as Loial is) she waits until AFTER the wedding ceremony to make it clear to her mother-in-law that she doesn’t plan on tying Loial down to the stedding and forcing him to give up the writing that he loves, because once they officially married, she is technically the one with the ‘say’ over Loial’s choices and not his mother. And Erith’s say is that Loial is allowed to have an opinion, basically. It’s very ‘doing our best to work around sexist cultural rules’; this honestly might be the most effective of Jordan’s cultural flips, because of how Erith essentially works the system so that she can do her best to give an equal marriage to her partner who is considered her lesser by default. She doesn’t track him down to cage him but to try to make sure he gets to stay free. Because she genuinely likes and appreciate WHO Loial is as a person.

44. And we also find out that the Ogier are aliens from another planet and are considering leaving this one due to the Last Battle being nigh and all. So. There’s that.

45. Then everything gets interrupted by a huge troop of Trollocs and there’s a fight. During the battle, “Lews Therin” is the one who seizes the Power and fights against them, using weaves that Rand doesn’t recognize. Blossoms of Fire, Deathgates, Arrows of Fire. He also finds that he can only attack and isn’t able/willing to put out the fires caused by his weaves. And once the battle is done “Lews Therin” refuses to let go of saidin. And he’s drawing more and more, so much that Rand worries he’s getting close to burning out. Logain draws attention to this, that Rand is holding an incredibly large amount of the Power still. lol, wow, Cadsuane immediately goes to her Rand mood ring (Min) and demands answers for how Rand is feeling. Anyway, Rand/LTT doesn’t let go of the Power until Lews Therin reminds them both that they get to die at the Last Battle.

46. lol, Rand notes that the MAIDENS notice him not protecting himself from the rain. Most of this section here is pretty good - I like the struggle between “Rand” and “Lews Therin” here. But the Cadsuane and Min parts mostly just always annoy me these days.

47. Min has been telling other people, like Nynaeve, about her Alivia viewing as well, because she’s annoyed that Rand didn’t react the way she wanted him to. But, you know, she hates sharing viewings. Wow, you also really know that she’s Rand’s sexy lamp when the narration makes a point of mentioning how hot she is wobbling along in her too-tall boots in the middle of a muddy battlefield full of corpses and carrion eaters.

48. Anyway, WE know from the Forsaken meeting that Rand is supposed to be off-limits now, which means that this wasn’t Moridin, ‘Cyndane’ or Moghedien. Probably wasn’t Semirhage; she has other plans. Aran’gar has some free time, with Egwene locked up in the White Tower. Might be Aran’gar. It doesn’t feel like Graendal or Mesaana, but you never know. I think that Moridin mention that “Sammael” was rumored to still be alive and driving Trollocs into the Ways, so maybe? I do not actually remember.

49. Min is still constantly angry with Alivia even though Alivia herself has absolutely no malice in her (towards anyone but the Seanchan, but they deserve it). A good reminder (hopefully to Rand as well) that Min’s viewings are not good at determining INTENT. Alivia genuinely just wants to help Rand, who saved her from slavery, but she’s also never going to let herself be anyone’s pushover again. Of all the “more powerful than Nynaeve” characters that pop up, Alivia is the one that makes the most sense to me, given what we know about the Seanchan. Anyway, sit down, Min. Alivia has already been more helpful than you.

50. Min again tries to convince Rand to, idk, throw Alivia out or something and he reminds her that her viewings are never wrong. Oh boy is she mad that her careful manipulation of his belief in her infallability is now working AGAINST her. We do learn that in the time between their conversation in CoT (the first time he used “but you’re never wrong” against her) and now, she has told him about the failed Moiraine viewings. But she’s too late; she did too good a job convincing him that he needed to trust her viewings no matter how much he personally disliked them. Doubting her viewing on Alivia would probably mean that Rand would feel like he would need to doubt every other decision that he’s made based on her viewings, which would crack a large part of the foundation of certainty that he’s built. He can’t afford to pull out that jenga block, lest the whole tower fall down. LTT is definitely not willing to doubt any of her viewings -- he’s holding onto that promise of death.

51. I’m not sure Min realizes that, though. That if Rand starts doubting ONE of her viewings, he would likely starting doubting ALL of her viewings (that she’s shared with him). Including the one about Cadsuane that she definitely WANTS him to believe. I wonder if Cadsuane realizes that? She tries to deflect from Min and Rand’s potential argument by negging Rand some more.

52. Anyway, Verin left Rand a note saying she thinks she can be of more use to him elsewhere, and to be wary of Aes Sedai, even the ones oathsworn to him. Bye Verin! She hasn’t really done much this book, but I remain fond of her. If Rand had to have a squirrely advisor from Far Madding forced on him in this set of books, I would have preferred Verin.

53. Loial is also leaving to go speak at the Great Stump (he wants to convince the Ogier not to leave) but he promises Rand that he will be with him at the Last Battle. Rand says that he needs Loial to help him find the Waygates but Elder Haman volunteers instead.

54. Bashere arrives with the location and time when Rand will be able to meet with “the Daughter of the Nine Moons” to try to talk about a truce, on relatively neutral ground. It sounds like Bashere went INTO Ebou Dar to talk to Suroth. I am hissing like a cat at how much I hate the way that he and Mat missed each other. He would recognize Mat if Mat were still in Ebou Dar! All these freaking missed chances are SO ANNOYING. If Rand knew that Mat had been left behind in Ebou Dar, then Bashere could have been on a subtle search mission in addition to trying to arrange a meeting.

55. Lan tells Nynaeve that he’s frustrated that it feels like Rand is wasting his time with the Seanchan when the Last Battle is coming and will hit the Borderlands first. Nynaeve tells him that she can see that he needs to go to the Borderlands and that she will take him. She just asks that he ride through Fal Moran on his way to the Blight, to see if anyone will ride with him. This whole scene here is mostly very good, with a few of Jordan’s... quirks aside. That being said... kinda wish Nynaeve had more of a plot in the last two books outside of helping her husband. Like, what she does here is very sweet and epic both but... I wish she ALSO had a plot of her own in addition to this.

56. Also, she doesn’t think about Mat at all, because Jordan has moved beyond letting people worry about Mat. We never found out why she withheld the info about Mat from Rand and it’s so annoying because the answer is literally “there was absolutely no good reason that Jordan could think of so he didn’t bother to actually give her a reason”. She didn’t tell him because Mat’s Plot Is In Ebou Dar and that’s the only reason. So annoying! So clunky!

57. But this is a very powerful scene and I don’t want to let my annoyances about other parts of the story detract from that. Anyway, she dumps Lan as far from his ending point as she can possibly manage while still leaving him in the Borderlands and then goes on a Traveling trip to rally people who were formerly of Malkier, to ask them to meet Lan in Fal Moran to ride to Tarwin’s Gap. The last two pages of this chapter brought genuine tears of emotion to my eyes. If we get that far, Zoë will definitely make us all cry in this scene.

58. Alivia is worried when two flocks of pigeons crash into each other and fall, saying it’s an ill omen, then wondering if the pigeon-related omens are different here. First time a non-Tuon character has mentioned omens, I think! Alivia already shows herself here to be more flexible than Tuon by wondering if omens might be different in another land. But Alivia has done a LOT of questioning of Seanchan culture recently and Tuon has done zero.

59. Min bums everyone out by telling them that lots of the people around them in Tear are going to die of hunger (that they can’t do anything about because Min’s viewings Are Law... except when she doesn’t want them to be). Thanks, Min. We can always count on you to bring down the mood. Rand IS taking the Maidens with him again these days. No mention of the Atha’an Miere ambassador. I guess the cleansing scared her off.

60. The steamwagon works now! Nice. Glad we got a steam engine update. It can travel from Cairhien to Tear successfully. Pretty impressive. Honestly, would have loved more updates on Rand’s tech school in Cairhien and so much less Embrace Slavery For The Greater Good content.

61. @markantonys has pointed this out too but it is so annoying that Min and Rand’s bond is the only ‘unmaskable’ of the bonds between Rand & his love interests. Rand and Min can have privacy when they have sex, but Rand and Elayne or Rand and Aviendha never can, because the bond between Rand and Min can’t be masked because Min is the ‘bondholder’ and she can’t channel and that means she can’t mask. So Min will always be intimately aware of whenever he’s in bed with someone else (if she's close enough). Which... honestly kinda sounds like hell for her, because she’s also the only one of them that gets incredibly jealous and possessive (even in-group). So the two women who are comfortable with the idea of sharing are capable of masking the bond but the one who STILL thinks about how only one of them can be his ~real~ partner will be forced to experience his love and lust for his other two partners (I’m guessing she will cope by getting blackout drunk, like she did in Caemlyn). Min really should NOT be in a poly/harem relationship; she is going to be miserable. I mean, I guess that’s nothing new -- she forces herself into things she dislikes every day for the sake Of Her Man but... you know. There are better ways to have a relationship. I mostly talk about how this relationship is bad for Rand, but it sucks for Min as well. They are simply not suited.

62. Rand notes again how quick Min is to reach for her knives, even in the most innocent of situations.

63. lol, it is funny that the innkeeper was totally panicking that he was being asked to host an orgy and then relaxed when he realised that wasn’t what was going on. But then Rand starts to have a real panic attack once he’s in the room with all those people. Baby!

64. He opens a short-hop Gateway into the Heart of the Stone of Tear. He internally notes Cadsuane’s hypocrisy over sniffing at him being obeyed by the guards there, as Cadsuane definitely expects instant obedience. Yeah, I noticed it too, Rand. We are on the same page about Cadsuane.

65. Rand is attracted to Alanna now, apparently. Sorry, “Lews Therin” is attracted to Alanna now. Anyway, she’s there with a bunch of High Lords. This was the mission that he sent her off on from Far Madding.

66. Because Min is now a complete stereotype, she goes over to gossip with Lady Caraline while Rand tries to talk business with Darlin. “Lews Therin” is attracted to Caraline too which makes Rand uncomfortable because of how much she looks like Moiraine.

67. So Rand gets angry at two of his people for blatantly ignoring his orders. Cadsuane decides it’s time to enact her Naughty Boy Policy. Literally the only thing that is keeping this woman in Rand’s life is his belief in Min’s viewings (which are starting to shake due to Min’s own worries about the Alivia viewing) so Cadsuane should probably be more cautious. Anyway, my feelings on violence as a means of communication is that there are always better ways. I will leave it at that for now. But also I cannot see how ANYTHING she does leads to her stated goal of ‘teaching him laughter and tears’. Baffling.

Mat is mentioned by:

Perrin x3

Birgitte x1

Elayne x1

Loial x 1

Rand x2

unnecessary scenes:

Perrin’s sideplot: 1 (19 pages)

Atha’an Miere nonsense: 1 (4 pages)

pregnancy weirdness: 1 (2 pages)

Cadsuane being a bully instead of an advisor: 1 (1 page), 1 (1 page), 1 (4 pages)

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #knife of dreams #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #it's kinda amazing how much i talk about mat considering that he isn't a pov character in this section of the book #honestly i love pre-CoT!Mat even more after seeing the horror that is CoT/KoD!Mat #the wheel of time